“Guns don’t kill people, people kill peple. Take the guns away from the nuts”.
Isn’t this what our side has been preaching every time there is a mass shooting and whenever the DUmmies want to take everyone’s guns away? It is a good law, as far as I’m concerned.
"...it is a good law, as far as I am concerned..."
“Isn’t this what our side has been preaching every time there is a mass shooting and whenever the DUmmies want to take everyone’s guns away? It is a good law, as far as I’m concerned.”
I fought one of these “red flag” bills where I live. We won in committee. I read the bill front to finish several times and the bill was appallingly bad—ex parte seizure of guns where you don’t know anything about it until the police show up at your door. Any girlfriend, family member, roommate, ex-roommate and many others could bring the secret seizure motion.
Then, once your guns are seized, you have seven days to get ready for a hearing to figure out whether the seizure is permanent — $20,000 in lawyers fees out the door — and you still don’t get to confront or cross-examine the witnesses against you.
Because of the way the economics of these bills are designed, 99% of these gun seizures will become permanent because only the idle rich are going to pay $20,000 in attorney’s fees to get back a Glock 19 and a HiPoint. Us regular folks don’t have the resources to fight the state —and the bill is designed that way.
And imagine what a dandy weapon it will be in the arsenal of divorce lawyers. A secret gun seizure hearing by the ex will become as routine as the mandatory child-abuse claims now.
Add to that, there are no sanctions against cops or ex’s who wrongly seize your guns. You may get your AR back. But you’re out $20,000. Does you ex pay? Nope. Do the police pay? Nope.
In the short term, this may get some guns out of the hands of nutty people. In the long term, this is a massively powerful gun-seizure law against ordinary law abiding citizens. Easily 1/3 of Americans have been diagnosed (officially) at some point in their lives with depression, anxiety disorder, OCD, aspergers and on and on. In Berkeley and Madison and Chicago, and LA and Detroit, you can bet that the red flag laws will be expanded in application to cover all of them and maybe more. Their only protection is a Berkeley judge who only hears one side of the case (a secret hearing). The side that gets to present their case in secret hearings almost always wins, especially if the judge thinks guns are a bad idea anyway.
And the ultimate absurdity is that removing a gun from and violent, crazy person leaves them angrier, still crazy and still violent and with lots of remaining weapons — cars, knives, fists, not to mention going downtown and buying an illegal gun.
If you are crazy and violent, you need to be removed from society for a time and treated. 72 hour holds are one way to do that.
The DUmmies are the scary ones. Most of them would like to emulate Che’.